THE ADVENT OF TIME

For an answer to the problem of evil to stand up to scrutiny, it must fully address these issues and more in a manner that is consistent with both the Bible and the lived experiences of all creatures, at all points in history. As explained by A. M. Weisberger in Suffering Belief: Evil and the Anglo-American Defense of Theism, theism’s failure to provide a truly comprehensive answer to the problem of evil is a failure that casts doubt on the credibility of core Christian assertions regarding the nature and character of God: “Any proposed solution to the problem of evil which does not account for all kinds of evil in the world, both moral and natural, is deficient in some way, since evil is then not shown to be necessary. And if some evil is not necessary, God’s goodness and/or power is called into question.”

If God’s goodness or power is called into question, Christianity itself is too.

Starting with the assumption that love is the principal purpose of creation, The Advent of Time identifies and examines the prerequisites of relational love in order to explain why God’s pursuit of a timeless loving relationship with mankind necessitated that he create the very conditions that allow for the possibility of evil and pain. Building on this foundation, the book then examines the biblical narrative of man’s creation as a timeless loving being, his fall to a time-based state of existence upon committing an unloving act, and his return to supra-temporal existence following death. This analysis answers every major facet of the problem of evil in a manner that fully aligns with Christian orthodoxy, while simultaneously addressing the most rigorous scientific and philosophical challenges that have emerged on this issue to date.

To provide prospective readers with an idea of the unique apologetics that appear in this book, a summary of the argument reconciling Genesis with the scientific theory of evolution is given on the Science & Direct Creation page. A summary of the argument reconciling the existence of hell with the assertion that God is all-loving is provided on the Hell & a Loving God page.

For those interested in learning more about the history of Western responses to the problem of evil, the Philosophers & Theologians page contains blog posts summarizing prominent philosophical, theological, and literary works on the problem of evil, organized into categories based on the genres of the works and the different eras in which they were written. Links to these categories and posts are listed at the bottom half of this page.

The posts grouped under the Theology of The Advent of Time category offer brief solutions to different subcomponents of the problem of evil, including answers to the problem of divine hiddenness, the problem of natural evil, and the problem of hell. Also included in this category are overviews of several important assumptions that underpin the arguments in the book, including a short analysis of the assertion that God is all-loving, a review of studies on human well-being supporting the assumption that love is the purpose of life, and a summary of the reason God made man with an eternal soul. Other posts in this category include an answer to why faith, not reason, is the exclusive form of decision-making that enables man to reach God; an explanation of why it is impossible for man to escape faith-based reasoning; an examination of the nature of existence above time; and an analysis of the scale of systemic change to the material order that occurred at the moment of the Fall, which included the advent of time itself.

These are just some of the many novel arguments that appear in The Advent of Time. Perhaps the most important theological development in this book, however, is the identification and analysis of the prerequisites of love. This insight is key to answering the problem of evil.

Paperback, hardcover, and eBook editions of The Advent of Time are available on Amazon. The eBook version of the title is available for free for those with a Kindle Unlimited subscription.